I think he can say this and remain Bishop as part of the (US) Episcopal Church, because that church is quite liberal in its beliefs. More liberal churches tend to look at the bible through a more scientific than dogmatic mindset. That said, they, like most churches still have their base Dogmas, or beliefs they hold to be true 'a priori', before they are proven (if they can be at all).

That said, its not at all strange to hear a Bishop essentially proclaim the "word of God" is no such thing! And who can deny that churches have had a mottled history (at best) when it comes to the abuse of power? To liberal Christians, churches are simply organizations of like minded people driven by a shared set of values and ideas. Not much different from any other organization.

They tend to acknowledge that all we know about the divine is what we humans have experienced and put into words, that we collectively sometimes recognize a spark of what we deem to be divine in scripture or everyday experience. Liberal churches are worlds apart from Southern Baptists who, among themselves, would probably not consider them "Christian" churches but sooner the spawn of Satan... The range of churches is really so great that you can almost guarantee that there's a clergyman out there somewhere to confess to any possible belief!

Don't forget that the bible was written by men. Just ask Matthew, Luke, Mark, John etc. More people have lost their lives on our planet, for refusing to adhere to words in a book written by primitive men, than any other reason. And millions of people have turned into pitiful wrecks at the point of death, essentially due to the religious idea of eternal damnation. Maybe the bishop understands this and has a conscience about it. I understand where he is coming from...